The Piano Room
by Rikkacchi
Summary: Cover by きゅら. "I hear the pounding of ivory down the hall. It builds and builds until it stops just before the climax of a melancholy melody. The noise is coming from that old piano room. Only one person goes in there anymore, a strange girl with wild eyes and a wrinkled uniform. Who was she, anyway? That rolling girl..."
1. Pounding Ivory

**A/N: So this is the edit of the first chapter. Mozu the Mochi, my amazing beta reader, helped me with the edits. Thanks Mozu!**

 _Mou ikkai._

One more time.

 _Mou ikkai._

Let me roll for one more day.

 _Mou ii kai?_

Not yet. The future is still far away.

 _Iki wo tomeru no ima._

The piano is a beautiful instrument. There is one in the old music room down from my classroom, a little space with big windows. There are stands with music sheets on them, too, all over the room. Nobody's reading them though. Occasionally, the room has only one who plays in there, ever since the school got a new music room, one that is much bigger and has lights instead of windows.

That one person is a strange girl. I guess it's a secret that she plays the piano in there. Often, she looks around, wild eyes darting before she shuts the door quietly behind her.

But everyone in the hall can hear her play. The way she pounds on those keys. It's like she takes out her anger on them. She'll start quiet at first and then the music gets louder and louder until she stops right in the middle of the song. I don't know what happens after that. In my classroom only I can hear the repetitive melody, because I sit in the foremost back. Today, she plays the same song she always does every same time. It's not that bad actually; she's good at playing the piano. She just pounds on the keys.

I'm still waiting for the day she finishes the song. She makes it pretty far today - I thought she might be finishing her song. But then, she just stops once she can't hit the ivory keys any harder.

"Two minutes to dismissal, please gather your books and wait by the door."

Last period ends at three o'clock. I sling my full backpack over my shoulder after managing to fit my books and school necessities in it and walk toward the school exit along with other students. The murmur of voices echo through the halls but I don't take part in the conversation. It's not like I couldn't. It's just because I won't. I'm not too sociable at school.

In the crowd, I'm pushed to the edge and against the wall, to the doors of different rooms. But there is one I stop at, myself a rock rooted in a raging river.

The door to the old music room. Thoughts and questions that have never been in my mind before flood inside like a gushing stream of water. Thoughts like; has that strange girl gone home yet? What classes did she go to? Why was she in here during last period to play the piano anyway?

I stand there, debating on what to do. Nobody notices my being stuck in front of the abandoned room. They walk by without even bothering to spare a glance until the stream of teenagers slows to a trickle and dries out completely.

I decide to peek, just to see if she was still there.

The door creaks when I push it open a few inches and screeches when I shove it out to react to what I see.

The whole room is trashed. Shards and pieces of marble are scattered. Music sheets litter the tile, and the stands which once stood firm and proud are thrown all over to the floor. But in the middle of it all is that strange girl on her knees with her hands around her own neck.

I don't think and react impulsively, running from the doorway, dropping to my knees and pulling them away and holding them in my own.

"Are you okay?!"

Is she choking on something or strangling herself?

Wild blue eyes burn into my sockets. I have never gotten a good look at her face before. She is pale with dark bags under long eyelashes and bruises where her hands were. Odd blue hair is pulled into high pigtails which is strewn all over her back, the tresses caressing her ebony sweater and white dress shirt. Her expression; it's not clear. I hesitated upon looking. But something is telling me it is an expression akin to that of a lunatic.

She tries to pull her small hands back yet I hold on tight. They were so frail that I could almost feel like I could shatter the bones any time, if i applied stronger pressure to my grip. Then she starts whimpering, as if I am hurting her. Either that, or she is afraid of me. Tears are coming down her face rapidly. Hyperventilating, she gets on her feet and uses her weight to jerk out of my grasp.

By then, she has become a sobbing mess and I'm sitting there on my knees, clueless and trying to think of any attempt. She must be suicidal, or mentally challenged. Something that I have no idea how to help with.

It's that moment when I suddenly blurt the words out, "Do you need help?"

The girl's hands cover her eyes while she screams hysterically, her feet shuffling until her back hits against the wall. She scurries as far as she could from me as possible. Something is wrong. I have no idea what though. Damn it, I'm awful with girls in the first place. How am I supposed to help one who's delirious?

She doesn't respond to my question; just falls to the ground again. At least she isn't choking herself, though.

"Umm…" I think about comforting her, going for help, or leave the room and forget it ever happened.

Suddenly, she lunges at me. The next moment, she's straddling me with her hands on my neck. Not that she's strangling, there is no applied pressure after all, just having them there and her wild stare focused on my eyes.

"Mou ikkai," she says, determined, and gives a good push with her albeit weak hands. The force too much, she presses on my airway until I can't breathe and I feel my remaining breath flies away like a flitting breeze _._ I start to sweat and my vision grows fuzzy. I didn't even attempt to fight back.

The one thing I can see are those odd blue eyes. They're crazed. They're not murderous but not exactly sane either. Her tears drip onto my face, warm on contact and slipping off my own cheeks.

She looks at me like I'm her problem and I need to get ridden of.

It's that exact moment you're not really thinking because you're being strangled by a girl you're not acquainted with, who's crying her lungs out and possibly doesn't speak English . I don't think to push her off, I don't think she was going to kill me, it's just an 'in the now' thing.

She hiccups and wipes her face, giving me a second to breathe. Then she gets up from me and runs out from the room.

For a good five minutes I lay on the floor, panting and gasping and absolutely rendered speechless. I wipe the salty tears that don't belong to me off my face. The incident is was certainly something else. Wait. Maybe I'm under-reacting. The person who attempted murder is clearly a mentally unstable girl. At least, that is what I analyzed from her quirky behavior. I found myself to be slightly concerned about her. Is anyone helping her? What class does she go to? Should I ask someone about this?

Tomorrow, I decide, I am going to ask the counselor about this girl. After I clean this place up.

But I wonder if I'd hear the piano tomorrow.


	2. Grey Moons

Rolling, rolling, rolling.

I want to stop breathing, but I want to roll one more time before that.

It's not fun; moments, years, eternities rolling past you without notice. In a world that isn't your own, time doesn't pass. I'm stuck in one of those worlds. I can't get out, because it's all I have. This world that everyone else lives in, it's so cruel. I get pushed and punched and kicked because of my mistakes, because I'm different. The jet black hair and brown eyes I don't have. The A- on my report card. In the world I'm stuck in, it's cold, nobody else lives there, but nobody else can hurt me. I try to get by in the real world by living in my own.

I have not eaten in a week now. I'm too busy studying. Rolling.

 _Another mistake._

They pile up. They pile up so high they bury me in them, screaming _failure, failure, failure!_

Rolling is so tiring. But I can't stop; the momentum is too great.

 _I hate this piano._

The piano that is not of my world in the school I go to. I hate the school even more. But I'm always here, to get better and maybe reach those dreams that are just out of my grasp. Whenever the students or teachers here touch me, invading my perfect world, it breaks it a little. One day I'll be hit so hard all of it will shatter and I won't be able to roll anymore, I'll die, I'll stop breathing…!

I mustn't think about it now. I have to finish this song.

Playing the piano is part of my expectations. I've played it since I was five years old and I still don't like it. Nobody comes in the room I play it in anymore, though. Lots of people used to sing and read the sheet music or play the instruments in this room. I think I rolled past that time, though.

A, G, F, left pedal, D…

Stupid, ugly piano…!

Maybe if I pound hard enough, I won't have to play it anymore.

It hurts my hands, but I'm almost done with the song.

C, right pedal…

My finger slips and hits A instead of B.

 _Another mistake, another failure!_

I hate it, I hate it, this ugly piano! I'll never get better!

I slam my fists down on the keys and get up from the chair. I wasn't even aware of myself throwing the stands and pushing the marble statue in the corner over, the pieces of the head and the sheet music all over the floor.

This happens frequently nowadays.

The voices overlap in my head, screaming.

 _Failure, failure, FAILURE, FAILURE—_

I scratch hard at my head trying to get it to stop, surely messing up my wrong hair.

Never mind, I'll end it all right now.

I hold my breath, putting my hands on my neck, not really choking myself but just stopping my air for now.

I sit down on my knees on the cold tile. I try to calm down but tears came down anyway so I push on my neck in frustration.

Frustrating, tedious, so awful…!

I'm starting to sweat now, out of breath but I will myself to stay like this until all of it stops and I can get on with my rolling again.

Suddenly, I hear a loud creaking sound, and someone appears in the doorway of the music room. I thought I had rolled past the point of time where other students came in here.

I just hoped he'd walk away and not care, like everybody else, but he gets on his knees, grabs my hands and pulls them away from my neck.

When he did that, my world shifts dangerously. I can feel the edges of it crumbling unlike any other time I've been touched.

Surely this person wants to stop my rolling.

 _I won't let him do that._

My arms are shaking with effort, trying to pull away before the crack in the wall around my world grows bigger. I am not very strong and I worry I don't weigh enough to use that either.

Tears come out so fluidly that my jaw is soaked and my bottom lip sticks out like a child's.

 _It hurts, it hurts, it hurts…!_

The only thing I can think of to do is get on my feet and use my weight that is thankfully enough to jerk out of his big hands.

Scrambling to the wall as far away from him as I can, I sob freely at the fact of how close I came to dying in my world. It was so scary, so scary!

The boy, his right black hair and brown eyes, looks concerned. "Do…you need help?"

 _I'm fine._

This person is going to try to stop me from rolling again…I have to do something.

So I lung at him and put my hands on his neck, pressing as hard as these skinny arms can push to kill this destroyer of worlds.

"Mou ikkai," I mutter shakily. I have to roll one more time.

The pleasure of seeing him gasp, his eyes popping out and arms flailing…it never comes. He just stares at me, his pupils a little dilated and lying still while I am strangling him. The tears swimming in my eyes make it hard to see those normal brown ones in the boy's head that are now scrutinizing me.

Is he dead yet? The person who almost killed me?

My hands hurt so badly and my head is on the verge of exploding. I can't see at all anymore, tears have washed away my vision. All they leave is a white haze with grey moons. Beautiful moons, crescent moons tumbling back and forth. Are they rolling, too? I thought I was the only one. Maybe they can join me in my world.

I can't do this anymore; I just have to hope he's gone and get out of here.

I get up and run through the door, going as fast down the hallways of this ugly school as I can while the moons wash away.

 _It spins again._


	3. Sleep, I Dare You

**A/N:** UGH SHORT. BOO. I'm waiting for my beta reader to edit the previous chapters, because I wanted this story to be as good as it could be. She's in a difficult time, so I'll start uploading the unedited chapters just so y'all have something to read of this story until I hear back from her oh and THANKS WEASEL FOR THE FAV :DDDDD

When I get home, my mom says hello, as usual, I sit down on the couch, as usual, I eat dinner, as usual, and I go to bed at ten, as usual. But something's different this time.

Unusually, I'm thinking about that girl with the blue hair. She never crossed my mind before today away from school. It was just, you know, something odd but you didn't feel the need to mention it to anybody.

But I feel the need now, after what happened. I'm not really worried about me. Like, coming to school and her really killing me this time. Those light hands didn't even leave bruises. I'm worried about her hurting herself and that it seemed she had nobody to help her. I'm an average guy. I don't want to be pulled into this weird situation. But if they find her dead one day in that old piano room, I'll feel like crap. So I have to take matters into my own hands. Well, a little indirectly.

Maybe I should probably pay attention more too. If I perk up a little I may find that she does go to classes. Maybe she doesn't exist at all. Maybe high school stress is getting to me.

Dammit. Why does everything have to be so confusing? Obviously this is a woman's place to do. It's too late to ask Mom now. I'll do it in the morning. Just asking the school seems a little…not thorough.

Never mind, stop worrying and go to sleep!

The light had been turned off long ago and the house was quiet. But those wild blue eyes still burn in my mind, daring it to slip into sleep.


	4. The Right Thing?

A **/N:** I didn't have Mozu the Mochi beta for me this chapter and I don't think I'll be using betas from now on. I think I've gained my footing. Enjoy and please review! I am writing the next chapter of Normal Trash right now~

"Good morning, sweetheart."

"Good morning, Mom."

My mother is already up and flipping eggs in the pan. Even on the weekends she's up before six.

"Hey, Mom, I have an issue I need to talk to you about—"

"Is it about your grades, honey? Don't tell me…" She stops when she looks away from the stove and at me.

"Gosh, honey, did you sleep at all last night? Are you sick?" She feels my forehead, looking worried. "No, Mom." I brush her hand off and sit at the table, already dressed in the school's plain uniform. "I just was thinking about something really weird."

Mom moves the sizzling breakfast from the pan to a plate and puts it in front of me. The stove is turned off and she sits down across from me at the table. "What's this issue at school?"

"Well…" I strain my brain. Would she even believe me? What if she thought the girl was a murderous psychopath and calls the cops about her the second I mention what she did to me?

I pick my words carefully. "There is a girl at school…"

Mom clasps her hands and grins behind her glasses. "Oh, my baby is in love!"

"No, Mom!" I wave my hands. She looks into her lap, disappointed, but still listening, probably thinking about what else a girl could be involved in.

"I don't know her. But she's really strange. She plays the piano in the old music room every day during last period."

Mom tilts her head. "So what?"

"Anyway, I looked in the room she plays in yesterday to see if she went home yet. And when I did, I found her in a mess she made, choking herself."

She looks at me hard, restraining a gasp. "And what did you do next?"

"Well, I grabbed her hands and she fought me, then…um…"

Mom was listening so intently I thought her eyes were gonna burn holes in my head.

"She lunged at me and tried to strangle me for a good minute. She got off and ran down the hall."

She doesn't say anything. I expected her to laugh, or cry, or yell. But she just stares.

Finally she speaks up. "Did she appear disabled?"

"No."

"Any marks on her wrists?"

"No."

"Give me a physical description."

I shifted. "She has blue eyes and hair. She's really tiny, and pale, and looks really tired."

Mom looks away and takes a deep breath. "Did she say anything to you?"

I try to remember what that girl had said yesterday. "Mou…ikkai. Some word in another language."

She draws in calming doses of air and thinks. "Obviously, she is mentally unstable. Well, I think that you should talk to the school about this today, as soon as possible. Tell them what happened and then they can set her up with a counselor or with the hospital. If you see her hurt outside of school, I want you to call an ambulance. If she seems okay today, be careful with her."

I push away the fact that she didn't have any concern for me whatsoever and pull in that she gave me a little bit of helpful advice.

"Thanks, Mom." I eat my eggs as fast as I can and head out the door.

"I trust you to know how to do the right thing!" Mom calls from the kitchen.

I just nod, trying to think about what that may be.


End file.
